WEBVTT - What Was the Emu War? 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:07.080 Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff. 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:09.920 Lauren Vogelbam here with the story of the Emu War. 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:14.000 It begins after World War One, when soldiers returned home 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.520 to Australia. The government was eager to show its support 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:20.000 for veterans. Take land. The government said, grow wheat and 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:23.000 we'll pay handsomely for it. It was a mission for 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:25.800 the bright eyed and hopeful, for men eager to cultivate 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:28.600 their futures. As they cultivated the soil in Western Australia, 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:31.920 you could say the plan was flawed from the start. 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:36.640 The government had nine hectares that's two two thousand acres 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:39.480 to go around, but that wasn't enough for the nearly 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.599 five thousand veterans who wanted it. Land was doled out 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:45.160 as it became available, and the choicest lots were given 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:48.360 away first. The remaining veterans got land in Perth, which 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.480 was not ideal for farming. What's more, in the years 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:53.400 that followed the initial land hand out in the early 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:57.640 nineteen twenties, Western Australia combated drought, frost, and a significant 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.960 rabbit infestation. While veterans labored against the elements and the wildlife. 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.520 Mounting financial challenges from the Great Depression threatened to undercut 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:09.240 all they'd been promised. The Australian government had initially pledged 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:11.600 to pay the veterans four shillings per bushel of wheat, 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:13.880 but the bill tied to that sum was killed in 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.959 the Senate. Another bill proposing three shillings per bushel actually passed, 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.200 but the veterans were never paid. At last, in nineteen 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:23.760 thirty one, the Wheat Bounty Act made good on the 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:26.920 government's promise to pay for wheat at the staggeringly low 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:30.399 price of four and a half pence per bushel. Let's 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:33.520 put this in perspective. Pence is equivalent to pennies. A 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.560 shilling is twelve pence, and there are twenty shillings in 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.440 a pound. In today's market, one British pound is worth 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:42.960 about a buck fifty. So these veterans were being promised 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:45.959 smallish sums of money to start, and delivered way less, 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:48.640 originally promised a fifth of a pound per bushel, and 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.200 settling for just one twentieth of a pound per bushel, 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.840 ten times less than what was promised. However, by this 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:56.800 point the veterans were desperate to make money. Off of 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:58.960 their wheat crops, and the stage was set for a 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:03.200 modestly fruitful harvest. No one could have anticipated what happened next. 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:06.920 In the annals of history, there's perhaps no stranger of 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.160 foe that the Australian emu, a flightless bird that can 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:12.360 stand about six and a half feet that's two meters 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:14.720 tall and way close to a hundred pounds. That's fort 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:19.239 and at an even stranger battle of man with machine 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:23.760 gun versus giant bird. The giant bird one. But in 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.519 warfare it's essential to know the enemy. So let's pause 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:30.240 and examine the bird. The dogged the veterans. We spoke 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.959 with Eric Slovak, bird keeper at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.600 He said EMUs are solitary for the most part. They 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.200 do get together in breeding seasons, but EMUs would prefer 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.720 to be by themselves. The exception is when they're foraging. 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:47.480 Slovak likens that behavior to humans going out solo to 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.640 a fast food lunch. He said, you're at McDonald's around 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:53.040 lots of people, but you're not socializing. You're just there 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:58.200 for the food. Okay, So they're big, solitary, hungry birds, 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:01.760 not much of a threat right, um, multiply that emu 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:05.399 you're envisioning by twenty thousand. That's how many descended upon 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:09.440 Western Australia in nineteen thirty two. Until a decade earlier, 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:13.440 in mus had been a protected species. After that time, 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:17.880 they were reclassified as vermin. Slovak explained, they'll eat anything 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:20.760 they can get their mouths on without hunting their grazers. 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:24.240 They like nuts and berries, baby grasses, which brings us 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.639 back to wheat. Yep, they'll eat that, faced with a 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.840 seemingly endless buffet of it. The opportunistic birds homed in 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.959 on the veterans plots beaten down by weather at a 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:37.280 volatile financial market, the veterans leaned hard on the government. 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:41.800 Help us, they implored, so one Major GPW. Meredith wound 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:44.760 up leading a military offensive against the EMUs. But there 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.000 were a few conditions. The veterans had to foot the 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:49.680 bill for the ammunition. Lewis machine guns were used in 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.600 EMU combat, and the veterans had to provide food and 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:55.880 lodging for the men assigned to this curious mission. As 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:59.040 a side note, a cinematographer Fox Movie Tone accompanied the 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:02.640 military to fill the EMU effort. Historians assumed the footage 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:04.880 would have been used in propaganda films to illustrate how 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:08.080 the government was aiding its veterans. But spoiler alert, the 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:12.240 mission didn't go exactly as planned. Armed with the knowledge 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:14.880 that a slingshot can take down an ordinary bird, you 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:17.200 might hazard a guess that a machine gun could wipe 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:21.080 out EMUs easily, but you would be wrong. EMUs are 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.200 made to run, and when shot out, they're going to panic, 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.919 and they won't move in any reliable direction. And emo's legs, 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.560 head and neck move with elegant fluidity while their bodies 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:34.000 stay parallel to the ground. Slovak explained, the body it 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:36.360 looks like a wave. The legs could left, the head 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:38.320 goes to the right, and they run in all different 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.680 directions like dropped marbles. Meredith and his men couldn't get 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:44.760 a straight shot at the EMUs, who stayed out of 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:47.800 range of machine guns, even when enterprising veterans suggested putting 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.159 them on vehicles and pursuing the birds as they ran. 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:54.240 The military wasted a ton of ammunition. Only two hundred 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:57.400 birds of the twenty thousand were actually killed, and not 0:04:57.480 --> 0:04:59.800 only did the EMUs of aid the troops, they destroyed 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.479 and more farmland in the process, tearing up the ground 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:06.359 wherever they ran. The veterans were dispirited and their land 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.520 was devastated. Meredith had a lot to answer for why 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.360 had so much ammunition been wasted? And was the effort 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:15.600 even humane? Then there was the matter of money. The 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:17.679 veterans promised to pay for the ammo, but the mission 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:22.000 ultimately failed. Could the sun be forgiven? This example of 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.200 ridiculous history can't be tied up conclusively with a tidy bow, 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.400 and some details such as who was ultimately held responsible 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.600 for the cost of the ammunition, are unclear. We do 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:35.000 know that the veterans learned painfully from past performance that rifles, 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.479 not machine guns, were the best way to handle nuisance EMUs. 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:41.400 They continued their war in a one to one battle 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:44.560 Veteran against bird, and the Australian government later placed a 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:48.200 bounty on EMUs to help control the population. But finally, 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:51.080 we do suspect that the Fox cinematographer got epic b 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:59.119 roll while on location. Today's episode was writen by Candice 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.600 Gibson and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.040 production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:06.120 on this and lots of other ridiculous history. Visit our 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:09.240 home planet has stuff works dot com and for more podcasts. 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.159 For my heart radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:13.839 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.